Excluding rude union rep from meeting was unlawful
- Business Advice
Kate Palmer, Employment Services Director
(Last updated )
Kate Palmer, Employment Services Director
(Last updated )
When an employer excluded an employee’s chosen trade union rep companion at a disciplinary hearing because they had been rude and disruptive, the employer breached the law
In Shoaib-Brown v IQVIA, an employee was invited to two formal meetings at which he was entitled to be accompanied by a statutory companion which can be either a fellow colleague or a trade union representative.
The employee’s chosen representative, a trade union rep, had accompanied the employee to previous meetings. However, the employer deemed that that particular union representative had been obstructive and rude during the previous meetings including interrupting the meeting chairperson. As such, the employer excluded him from the planned meetings and told the employee that he could be accompanied by someone else.
As a result, the employee raised a claim to the Employment Tribunal (ET) for failure to comply with section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, which sets out the law on accompaniment.
The ET upheld the claim by deciding that the statutory right is the right to be accompanied by an individual chosen by the employee from within a specified class of individuals. The statutory right does not provide for the employer having a say over who can accompany the employee.
The judge then had to consider the level of compensation to be awarded to the employee in this situation. Where such claims are successful, under the Act, claimants can receive up to two weeks’ pay for each breach. Since there had been two meetings at which the employee had been denied their chosen companion, the employee was entitled to receive up to four weeks’ pay. But the ET chose to reduce the compensation from 4 weeks’ pay to 3 weeks’ pay due to the union rep’s inappropriate conduct.
For more information on the right to be accompanied, visit BrAInbox today where you can find answers to questions like Do I have to let an employee bring a companion to a disciplinary investigation meeting?
Read more from the latest BrAInbox Business News update:
https://peninsulagrouplimited.com/resource-hub/business-advice/tax-relief-and-travel-expenses
Kate Palmer, Employment Services Director
(Last updated )
Kate Palmer, Employment Services Director
(Last updated )
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